


alone together

by Sevi (KelSevi)



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 02:49:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KelSevi/pseuds/Sevi
Summary: The Fell and the Demon had always assumed they would be alone. There was no dragon quite like the Fell, and no life quite lived like the Demon, hated and forgotten by all.They were doomed to walk this path, without guidance, without help, without salvation.But they could walk it together.





	1. Idunn.

_Who is she._

 

It was a statement, not a question, demanded the Fell Dragon. A fact that he must have, must know, must learn about. Two gleaming red eyes poured their hate into the hood of the one cloaked in such disgustingly bright garb, the one they call the Summoner. There was hardly an answer to his statement-question - hardly anything to go off at all. And they knew it, the absolute bastard of a human.

 

"Idunn."

 

They spoke it with that putridly innocent smile of theirs, and then nothing more. His eyes narrowed, he scoffed, and turned away in a flash.

 

* * *

 

 

She was just summoned but a week ago, Grima recalled. The only reason he knew this is because he happened to see her summon first-hand. He was not much for greeting new Heroes to this world - every new one earned his ire newly and completely, and the majority of them were ugly _humans_ anyway. Disgusting creatures, them. And even when something new came along, some new dragon he's never heard of or a creature neither human or dragon at all, they eventually reveal their unfathomable fetish for the worst of them all: Naga.

 

Naga.

 

Just the very breath of her name fills him with an anger undeniable. And, certainly, this new one, too-- this new dragon, in her hooded robes and her soft, gentle exterior, she too would behold to that ungrateful dragon's might. She had to have, for what else was a creature but beholden to Naga?

 

At least, that is what he thought. But before he left, a hint of something... off, shall he say, left him wanting for more. Be it the way she spoke wordless sounds to the Summoner, or the waft of something far more sinister... he had to know more. He had to.

 

On this particular day, at this particular hour (he never took the time to keep track anymore), the Fell Dragon himself slunk out from the shadows of the dungeons underneath to wander the halls of the Order of Heroes. They were stunningly empty that day, perhaps because word of his emergence has spread among many of the castle's inhabitants. Most knew to keep their distance, lest they be forced to withstand his arbitrary fun. And how arbitrary it is, for his fun only begins when another breaks into tears.

 

But he wasn't out to cause tears that day.

 

He had eavesdropped from the prince and princess of this realm (Alphone? Sharry? Whatever.) that this "Idunn" character took to the gardens in the midst of the castle's exterior. There was a courtyard, and in that courtyard, plots of mud and dirt for growing new plants. He always thought of it as a waste of time, but given that every use of his time in this world was a waste, he himself had taken to showing up at the dead of night and fiddling with the plants. Plants do not talk. Plants do not judge. Plants do not create massive horrible beings of death and destruction, and then pin the blame for all their problems on him. And one plant in particular eats bugs, so Grima was more than pleased to oblige in greenthumb-ery.

 

But oh, what a surprise it would be when he arrived at the entrance to the courtyard itself.

 

* * *

 

 

The sun shone filtered light through the leaves dotting the trees growing around the courtyard's perimeter. Light, always too bright for the sensitive Fell Dragon's tastes, splashed across the grass in patterns and waves. The sea of light and shade circled the center, prominent for both the uninterrupted beam of light drawn upon it and the rows of sectioned plots of flowers and herbs growing beside each other. Each section was labeled with a Hero's name, ranging from simpletons like that Donnel to even royal-blooded fools such as the ever-righteous Seliph. The rows were so neat and tidy, Grima often thought of destroying them for the fun of it. He always stopped himself before starting wanton destruction, however. Something about how amoral that kind of life was killed any sense of joy in its destruction.

 

But one spot in particular drew Grima's eyes, and he let them scan over the area to take it in. And what sight he beheld, firstly, filled his veins with dread.

 

_There she was._ Clad in purple robes far too big for her frail little body, pooled all about her on the grass. She must have been kneeling, because he couldn't imagine her being that short upon summoning. But there was something different about her, and as he drew closer, he understood what it was: her hood was hanging down off her head, and silvery-purple locks of straight, well-kept hair was only illuminated in the beams of light. The sight alone could be considered enchanting, and more to the point, absolutely beautiful.

 

And she was tending to her flowers right beside his unnamed plot of land.

 

If Grima were any sort of pig-headed human _idiot,_  he might have yelled at her to get away from his property. But he was not, so instead, he stepped into the garden to observe from a closer distance. And as soon as his foot hit the fresh grass, that was when he felt it again.

 

_Power. Unceasing power. The power to end worlds. Rule lands. Power._

 

He knew this power well. It coursed through him undeterred, unstoppable. Purple flames licked at his shoulders and hands, and they empowered him to self-summon his own body in times of need. This dragon, too, possessed that power, and he could feel it wash off her in waves. He hadn't felt this sort of power in forever-- in fact, the last time he noticed it at all, it was coming off the "Heroes" summoned alongside him but a year or so ago.

 

As much as he hated to admit it, he was excited. But he stopped himself, mere meters away from her.

 

And she noticed.

 

* * *

 

 

Her eyes were pink and green. Like the colors of a watermelon, sliced in half. Odd, for a creature consumed with darkness such as she, but strangely mesmerizing all the same. For some reason, he found himself speechless before her, as she did before him. But she would not stay speechless for long.

 

"... You're..."

 

Ah, had she already heard of him? "The Fell Dragon," he answered anyway, curtly and with malice. His eyes lidded, smothering the abject fascination he held over her just moments before. "I am the Wings of Despair, the Breath of Ruin. I am Grima. And what of you, _Idunn?"_

 

Most startle with a shudder when he speaks their name without having first been told it, but Idunn did not bat an eye. Idunn did not startle. In fact, Idunn did not even react. Her eyes blink, but only after a moment of silence, as though she had forgotten to.

 

"My name... yes... that is my name." There was no pensiveness in her face. None in her voice. Simply cold observation. "I am the Demon Dragon... the destroyer of humans. And... I have heard your name, in these halls..."

 

Wait. Demon Dragon... destroyer of _humans?_ Hold on. Grima's brow twitched, and then arched into a look of disgruntled concern. Was he not the only dragon in this forsaken universe with a shred of intelligence? His mouth opened again before he was prepared to speak, but then he shut it, thrust deep in thought. Idunn only blinked, again with such slothly attention.

 

After some moments, Grima hummed, and then stepped closer. "You hate humans," he stated, testing the waters. Idunn patiently whispered, "yes." The corner of Grima's mouth twitched, and then curled upward. "You wish to see them gone. Scourge of the earth, that they are." Again, Idunn spoke, like the mechanical squeak of a machine whirring to life "yes."

 

Suddenly, the Fell Dragon ducked down, closing the gap between them uncomfortably. His intense, glowing red eyes were close to her dull, heterochromic ones. She hardly moved, only leaning back some to create space between the two of them. Grima pressed forward, the smile on his face curling into a shark-toothed grin.

 

"You would slaughter them by the dozens if not for the Summoner's contract."

 

"Yes."

 

And just like that, the closeness of their gardens didn't seem so bad.


	2. Grima.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of Grima.

 

He walked into her life so quickly, and so forcefully, like a whirlwind developing into a tornado. He called himself so many glamorous names - the Wings of Despair, the Breath of Ruin, the Fell Dragon. He spoke of them so much and so loudly she ended up memorizing the words and the order by sheer accident. But, for who he was, he seemed alright enough, and the two shared a common goal, so they flocked together just as well.

 

Idunn ended up the right-hand woman to Grima's inventive approaches to human extermination, which were ultimately no more than days spent in the dark damp dungeon he resided in, telling tall tales of "what he WOULD do if this damnable contract were not shackling him down!" She nodded to his every gripe, and listened intently to the experiences he shared of his own world. Apparently, he had started a war upon the humans where he came from, and he was doing quite well before he had been called to this world. It was interesting to listen to, if not slightly boring when he went into gory detail about the humans that ended up in his maw.

 

For some reason, the way he spoke to her - so excitedly, in so much vivid detail, with reckless regard for his own personal space - struck her as... familiar. Nothing she had ever seen in her lifetime, but for some reason, she could relate to it anyway.

 

* * *

 

 

Once, he asked her what her world was like.

 

"I don't know," she murmured, curtly. The answer, evidently, was less than satisfactory for the knowledge-hungry dragon across from her, and he frowned like a child deprived of a snack.

 

"What do you mean, 'don't know'? You... do not remember?"

 

Idunn shook her head, and then paused. "... I remember... a little. I remember... why I am fighting."

 

"Well, then spit it out! Tell me what the humans have done to you. Go on. Spare _no_ details! Anything you remember, at all!" His eyes widened and he leaned in close.

 

She shuffled away a little bit from Grima before continuing. "There was a war, between human and dragon. I was to... to fight for the dragons, but... I... was put to sleep, many years ago. I slept, and I slept... and there was no one and nothing at all to wake me. It was so dark... so quiet... I was completely alone."

 

Alone. Alone, in the dark... for some reason, the very mention of alone deflated some of the heavy-handed enthusiasm in Grima's expression, and his eyes softened just so. She continued, the only noticeable difference in her being her hands, subconsciously clenching into fists.

 

"Then... I woke up. There, His Highness stood... the human Zephiel had brought me back." Grima's eyes widened again and he sucked in a breath. She kept on. "He told me to bring freedom to the world... to purge it of scum. I obliged. Anything he asked of me... I would do."

 

She quieted, and he quieted, too. Silence settled over the two, interrupted only by the occasional drips of water that infiltrated through cracks in the stone, dropping down from the ceiling to the water-damaged flooring. Something was going on in Grima's brain, that much Idunn could ascertain. The way he looked at her, it was with surprise, which then settled into muted shock, the way his eyebrows raised and then lowered. And then, confusion set in, expressed through concerning eyes augmented by those expressive eyebrows pushing downward. As though he thought he wasn't hearing right, he repeated,

 

"... You fight for a human's cause?"

 

"Yes," Idunn replied, irony hollowly ringing through her voice. "He brought me back... so I do as His Highness desires."

 

Again, silence, but only for a moment. With a testy tone to his voice, he grumbled, "You know, a human brought me back, too. In fact, thousands of them did."

 

This was something that Idunn did not know. Finding it a breath of fresh air far away from the usual stories of trepidation and torturous violence, she perked at the mention and listened closely. However, Grima did not look like he was in the mood to tell stories. Having caught her attention, his voice lowered to that of a growl. "They brought me back, for I was their savior. They worshiped me for all of a thousand of years, and slowly tended to my bloodline. They gave me an avatar to live and breathe through, so that I might have freed my slumbering body, sealed away by the humans who hated me so. They slaughtered themselves by the hundreds, feeding me sacrifices, giving me life anew..."

 

His eyes glowered. Not an ounce of gratitude or joy in his voice; instead, all there was, was anger. Pain. "They did this, but not for my own sake. They did this for their own. They wanted to cleanse the world of the humans they despised. They wanted to kill Naga and all her followers, until they were naught but memories. But not a thought was spared toward me, who they looked toward to save them." Sharp teeth were bared; gloved fingers nearly penetrated by sharp claws dug into his legs. "They bled for me, and they cursed me, as though I had orchestrated it all myself. What burns in _my_ veins is _nothing_ compared to the evil that they crafted with their own hands, and yet they believed _me_ to be the curse that started it _all."_

 

A fire sprouted on Grima's shoulder, flickering menacingly with hate, and Idunn flinched. Even if she could not fully understand the emotions bursting forth from the Fell Dragon, she could certainly feel them, and something about the way he felt was also familiar, to something she couldn't possibly comprehend. It hurt.

 

It hurt so much, and she just couldn't understand it at all.

 

* * *

 

 

Grima left in a huff after that day, and just as quickly as their allegiance had begun had it degraded into something of a passive distance. Thrown out by the fury of the tornado whirling into a hurricane, Idunn could only watch as the Fell Dragon gave her suspicious stares from across rooms and despising stares in passing along the Order's halls. In these times she remembered, briefly, what a Hero clad in blue had advised her when she first arrived: "Stay clear of Grima. He isn't a good person, and he will try to hurt you."

 

But, the dragon she spoke to was nothing like the monster they described him as. In the briefest week of their time together, all she could remember was the joy in his voice, the excitement of another who would not only listen to his inane ramblings, but understand them, too. He was an entirely different person altogether, and the two of them had a shared goal, didn't they? So, why now?

 

What did Idunn do? And... what should she do now? Unsure and afraid, she sought out the Summoner. _If anything happens, let me know,_ they told her the first day.

 

They were completely the opposite of Grima, Idunn came to find out. When she finally looked for them, she found them exactly where she expected to - among a crowd of Heroes, chatting cheerfully with their chosen favorites. In the short time she was in Askr, she never found it particularly pleasant to seek them out, for they were almost always swarmed by humans. And, naturally, even knowing her goal and title, she would be greeted, too. Even as the crowd dispersed naturally, two Heroes stuck around.

 

"Hey, it's the new dragon girl!" One particularly gruff voice sounded out. It came from a large-built man with blue hair, held up by a headband. Another blue-haired individual with much, much longer hair but who was much, much shorter, quickly swung in to correct him. "Sir Barst, her name is Idunn. You should be more careful about what you say." The correction only earned him a boisterous laugh and a flustered blush, however.

 

Unnerved by the two blue men, Idunn turned her eyes to the Summoner. They must have felt they were being called, for they quickly turned to the two Heroes accompanying them and bade the two farewell. Just as quickly, they turned to Idunn with a gentle smile and a disarming voice she could only describe as kind. "Hey, what's up?"

 

She gently tilted her head down, letting her hood cover her eyes slightly. "I want to ask you... about Grima."

 

"Ooooh." The Summoner winced, and then, like they knew what was happening, "Didn't go so well, huh?"

 

"..."

 

Noting the uncomfortable silence, the Summoner quickly reached their hand out to Idunn's shoulder and hovered it around her side. "Well, why don't you tell me about it in the Safety Room?" The very mention of a room designated 'safe' immediately saw her raise her head back up, if only to express confusion written all across her face. The Summoner chuckled, and then nudged her along. "Here, I'll show you."

 

* * *

 

 

Idunn didn't know what to expect when the Summoner showed her "The Safety Room," but it most certainly was not... whatever _this_ was.

 

One of the castle's rooms was converted into what could only be described as a gaudy cuddle chamber. Shoddily-crafted textiles, soft plushes, hats and masks adorned the room, strewn about as though haphazardly hung and then promptly forgotten about. There were cushion chairs and a long couch absolutely filled to the brim with useless, gaudy, shiny things and more plushes than one could shake their head at. And, at the center of it all was the Summoner, grinning a toothy grin and their thin arms raised high above their head in a show of success and excitement.

 

"So! Whadd'ya think?"

 

Idunn did not say anything. Idunn could not say anything. Idunn _refused_ to say anything. She simply stepped inside, deposited herself on the large couch, and kept quiet. Picking up on her tone, the Summoner pulled out one of the chairs and sat right down on it. They laced their fingers together and set their arms and balled fist on their lap between their legs.

 

"Now, what's going on? Usually, when people come to me about Grima, it's because he put a frog down someone's back or something."

 

That sounded like Grima, all right. Idunn lowered her head again, avoiding the Summoner's gaze. When she spoke, her voice is steady. "We... were working together, recently. He approached me... he said that we should be... 'partners.' That way, it would be easier, to... to exterminate humankind." Hearing this, the Summoner smiled, but kept silent.

 

"Grima would come to me every day... he would tell me about his world... but then, he prompted me about mine. The world I come from... I remembered little, but... I do remember waking up. When I told him how I fight for His Highness... he left. Now he will not even look at me, except with such fury in his eyes... Why?"

 

The smile on the Summoner's face withered away, and it was then something occurred to them. They unfurled their fingers away from each other, and then refurled them as they sought the words to express to Idunn. Almost half a minute passed before they finally decided on something to say, and so, they spoke carefully. "Idunn, Grima is... well. He's... got his reasons to hate most of everything. And while I don't agree with those reasons, I can see why he does what he does. The things he does, they're, um... they're done because he's hurting."

 

Idunn blinked, surprised. "He's... hurting?"

 

"Yeah. He wouldn't tell me, but he's said enough that I can't think of it any other way. It's like... man, how do I put this... it's like he's been wronged so many times he doesn't have anyone left to turn to. And I haven't seen him be interested in anyone; quite frankly, I didn't think he had it in him. He even chased off little Fae when she brought him flowers!"

 

Doesn't have anyone left to turn to... not a single soul. And yet, when he looked at her...

 

_Did she... make him feel less alone?_

 

...

 

Without another word, or even a thought to say thanks, Idunn stood, turned, and left the room. The Summoner only watched her go, taking the time only to disconnect their hands and lean their face against one hand, the elbow rested on their knee.

 

"Maybe I should start charging for advice."

**Author's Note:**

> Dunno how many parts this is gonna have; it's self-indulgence hour so stay tuned!!!


End file.
